HP Veer, Pre3 and TouchPad webOS devices unveiled

As expected from the erroneous leak before its global press announcement, HP has introduce three new webOS devices onto the market: the HP Veer, Palm Pre3 and its iPad rival, the HP TouchPad.

Having added 100s of engineers to the webOS development team since its acquisition of Palm, HP has been keen to expand the operating system's reach to a range of different devices, from smartphones to tablets. To begin with, it's introducing HP Synergy, its web service aggregation software, to multiple products in its line-up.

But it is the new products that are the biggest items on the agenda for HP. And the first of those is, ironically, the smallest.

The HP Veer has been designed for those who want something a bit tidier, a bit more portable than the average smartphone, but would still like it to sport many of the features of a more full-bodied handset, including webOS 2.2. It comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7230 800-MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of on-board storage, and is a HSPA+ model.

It also has Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) and Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity, plus an accelerometer, and proximity and light sensors.

The Veer is about the size of a credit card, with a tiny 2.6-inch touchscreen and a slide-out keyboard. It'll be available in the States around springtime.

It's available in both HSPA+ and EVDO flavours, contains a 1.4GHz Snapdragon processor in its bowels (the first smartphone to do so) and 512MB RAM. It can come with either 8GB or 16GB of internal storage, features a 3.6-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen display and comes with a full QWERTY slide-out keyboard.

There's a 5-megapixel camera around the back (plus a LED flash) with a forward facing webcam for video-calling, and it's capable of both recording and playing back HD video.

The Pre3 won't be around until the summer though, although HP has announced that the Pre 2 has just gone on pre-order via Verizon in the US.

The final, and grandstanding, arrival into the webOS family, loaded with the previously unheard of webOS 3.0 build, is the HP TouchPad.

Slightly smaller than an iPad, with a 9.7-inch display, the TouchPad has a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor.

As previously posted, it is 1.6lbs (0.726kg) in weight, 13.7mm thick, and the screen has a 1024 x 768 resolution. It has a front-facing 1.3-megapixel webcam for video-calling, Beats by Dr. Dre audio technology, and stereo speakers.

There's 1GB of RAM on-board, comes with either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage, and both Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n) connections can be enabled. And, as is the way with these things, this specific tablet carries a gyroscope, accelerometer and a compass.

Oh, and it is fully compatible with Flash 10.1. Naturally.

HP Synergy is part of its DNA, thereby allowing it to easily sync with other webOS devices - effortlessly aiding the transfer of contacts and information from products in the same range.

Another cool feature of both the TouchPad and Pre3 is that both of them are NFC-enabled devices, so when you touch them together, they share websites and info automatically. Neat.

A Wi-Fi version of the TouchPad will be available in the summer, while 3G and 4G versions will be added to the range at a later date.

Our senior ed of news and features has been a tech and games journalist for more than 27 years, and has been with Pocket-lint for over five. Rik has edited a number of videogame magazines in the past, was deputy editor of Home Cinema Choice, and his TV career included stints as co-presenter of Channel 4's Gamesmaster and Sky One’s Games World.